QuietOn’s noise-cancellation earplugs prove to be a hit on Indiegogo

The end of a long, tiring flight may not seem like the most likely time for inspiration to hit, but such was the case with QuietOn co-founder Janne Kyllonen, who, after trying on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones at an airport, wondered if the technology could be miniaturized and, therefore, attain wider use.

The QuietOn earplugs, which will set you back $130 (or 120 Euro), are designed to fit comfortably within the ear and make use of noise cancellation, as well as acoustic noise attenuation, to create the desired silence. Perhaps the main highlight behind QuietOn’s earplugs is their simplicity, as they do not use any wires or require the wearer to adjust any settings, simply turning on when removed from the charging case. The case, for its part, is an integral part of the package, providing a charge that reportedly allows the earplugs to be used for up to 50 hours.

QuietOn claims an undisclosed amount of funding for the project. But, like many hardware projects, the team behind QuietOn has also turned to crowdfunding in order to gauge customer interest and try to pull in pre-sales. Although their Indiegogo campaign is only a few days old, they have already soared past their goal and have shown no signs of slowing down. With 21 days remaining, the project has easily surpassed its goal of $100,000, thus far pulling in more than $230,000 from nearly 1,670 backers, as well as pre-sales from customers in 58 countries.

As with any of these crowdfunding campaigns, one of the main questions is whether the creators of the project have a working prototype and can actually deliver the item that they are promoting. In this instance, the creators of the QuietOn earplugs report that they built their initial prototypes in 2015 and spent much of last year trying to perfect them. They are continuing to work on prototypes with testers, but have reached the point that they are ready to mass-produce the device. As it stands, crowdfunding backers should expect to receive the earplugs in June 2016.